TransferWise reply to my query on transfers.

[jesimps]

I sent an email to TransferWise (TW) asking if all their monthly transfers to me could be sent to Bangkok Bank, explaining the TI rules on monthly income method. Here's their reply:

 

"Thank you for getting in touch with us. I'm sorry it took us some time to answer your email.

Unfortunately, we currently have no means to allow your future transfers be automatically sent via a particular bank. This has to be done manually. Here are the steps you need to follow if you want to route your payment to Bangkok Bank:
Set up the transfer
Give us a call
Send your funds to us

Once we receive your request, we will try to manually route the payment to your chosen bank. 

I hope this helps, but if you have any questions or something needs to be clarified, please write back to us. 

Best wishes,

Jeane
Transferwise"

 

So far all this year's monthly transfers have gone direct to my Bangkok Bank account, but last December's went via TMB and was recorded as a domestic tranfer on my statement. Be interesting to hear if anyone has had a different response from TW.

[sumrit]

Set up the transfer
Give us a call
Send your funds to us

Once we receive your request, we will try to manually route the payment to your chosen bank

 

This was exactly the same response I had from the Transferwise UK office when I contacted them in January. I've been making two transfers a month since then and every single one has gone directly to my Bangkok bank account.????

Edited May 14, 2019 by sumrit

[glegolo]

Sorry if I missunderstand you guys, but what are you really talking about. I do transferwise now a couple of times each monthfor a long time. I do decide myself what thai bankaccount I prefer to have the money sent to... That is MY choice not Transferwise choice.......

 

Are you guys doing this in another way just because you´re brits????

 

glegolo

[Pib]

1 minute ago, glegolo said:

Sorry if I missunderstand you guys, but what are you really talking about. I do transferwise now a couple of times each monthfor a long time. I do decide myself what thai bankaccount I prefer to have the money sent to... That is MY choice not Transferwise choice.......

 

Are you guys doing this in another way just because you´re brits????

 

glegolo

You are "not" deciding which "partner" bank TW uses to complete the final leg of the transfer which is a domestic transfer.  You only decide which bank account to have the funds deposited to...the bank account you setup in your recipient area.

 

TW uses Bankgok Bank, K-bank, or TMB for final leg of the transfer to bank accounts in Thailand.   Like say your bank account was at SCB.  TW would use either Bangkok Bank, K-bank, or TMB to transfer funds from their account over to your account at SCB for the final leg of the transfer. 

 

Maybe think of the TW partner banks as intermediary banks that TW uses to relay money to your bank account which could be one of dozens different banks in Thailand.

 

[glegolo]

3 minutes ago, Pib said:

You are "not" deciding which "partner" bank TW uses to complete the final leg of the transfer which is a domestic transfer.  You only decide which bank account to have the funds deposited to...the bank account you setup in your recipient area.

 

TW uses Bankgok Bank, K-bank, or TMB for final leg of the transfer to bank accounts in Thailand.   Like say your bank account was at SCB.  TW would use either Bangkok Bank, K-bank, or TMB to transfer funds from their account over to your account at SCB for the final leg of the transfer. 

 

Maybe think of the TW partner banks as intermediary banks that TW uses to relay money to your bank account which could be one of dozens different banks in Thailand.

 

thanks for your nice reply. yes I am fully aware of what you are saying. But must say WHAT IS THE PROBLEM here????? I have myself BKK bank, and in my statement from BKK Bank they always state "international transfer".... so just choose BKK bank dont give a damn who the middle bank is, who cares????

 

I must miss something here really??

 

glegolo

[scubascuba3]

 
I must miss something here really??
 
glegolo

Yes you are, many threads on it

[scubascuba3]

"we will try to manually route the payment to your chosen bank"

 

This means one or more could easily go via TMB or Kasikorn and so be classed as domestic

 

 

[twocatsmac]

28 minutes ago, glegolo said:

thanks for your nice reply. yes I am fully aware of what you are saying. But must say WHAT IS THE PROBLEM here????? I have myself BKK bank, and in my statement from BKK Bank they always state "international transfer".... so just choose BKK bank dont give a damn who the middle bank is, who cares????

 

I must miss something here really??

 

glegolo

who cares???? immigration cares. 

[glegolo]

19 minutes ago, twocatsmac said:

who cares???? immigration cares. 

ok sorry guys me bad... I thought that the main thing was that the statement read "international transfer" not the name of a middle bank...

 

glegolo

[Pib]

55 minutes ago, glegolo said:

thanks for your nice reply. yes I am fully aware of what you are saying. But must say WHAT IS THE PROBLEM here????? I have myself BKK bank, and in my statement from BKK Bank they always state "international transfer".... so just choose BKK bank dont give a damn who the middle bank is, who cares????

 

I must miss something here really??

 

glegolo

So far you have been lucky that TW has chosen Bangkok Bank as their partner bank for transfers to your Bangkok Bank account.  But that does not mean they will every time.  Unless you have setup a tagging arrangement with TW, eventually some of your transfers will be routed thru K-bank or TMB to your Bangkok Bank account and then you will not receive the FTT/International Transfer coding on your Bangkok Bank account...it will instead just be reflected as a regular domestic transfer.   

 

Quite a few TW related posts where people having TW transfers going to their Bangkok Bank account stated they did not get the FTT/International Transfer coding because TW used Kbank or TMB.   

 

A person needs to keep in mind that TW has agreements with its three Thailand partner banks and each time a partner bank is involved in a transfer they get a small fee from TW for processing the transfer.   And I expect TW likes to spread around the transfers among it's partner banks to keep them all happy versus favoring one....plus I expect TW does not really like tagging as it creates more work for them and makes it harder for them to spread the transfers among all three partner banks.

[glegolo]

12 minutes ago, Pib said:

tner banks.

got it......

 

glegolo

Edited May 14, 2019 by glegolo

[Pib]

1 minute ago, glegolo said:

thnks for your reply. no I have not been lucky at all. I have registrered a couple of thai-bank accounts at Transferwise. And upon each and every transfer I myself do choose one of them as the recepient bankaccount.... I do not care at all what the name of the middle-bank is. As long as I use my own BKK bank account all transfers are being called international transfers....

 

So REALLY,,,, what am I missing here guys..

 

glegolo

Yes, of course you choose a recipient for the transfer....who the money is being transfer to...everyone does that when doing a TW transfer.

 

But where you say "I have registered a couple thai-bank accounts Transferwise" are you really saying you have got with TW to have your recipient bank accounts "tagged", repeat, tagged to always use Bangkok Bank as the partner bank?   If not, eventually some of your transfers to your Bangkok Bank account (i.e., recipient ) will be routed thru K-bank or TMB and you will not get the FTT/International coding.

 

 

[sumrit]

 

 

 

 

 

 

5

20 hours ago, Pib said:

So far you have been lucky that TW has chosen Bangkok Bank as their partner bank for transfers to your Bangkok Bank account.  But that does not mean they will every time.  Unless you have setup a tagging arrangement with TW, eventually some of your transfers will be routed thru K-bank or TMB to your Bangkok Bank account and then you will not receive the FTT/International Transfer coding on your Bangkok Bank account...it will instead just be reflected as a regular domestic transfer.   

 

Quite a few TW related posts where people having TW transfers going to their Bangkok Bank account stated they did not get the FTT/International Transfer coding because TW used Kbank or TMB.   

 

A person needs to keep in mind that TW has agreements with its three Thailand partner banks and each time a partner bank is involved in a transfer they get a small fee from TW for processing the transfer.   And I expect TW likes to spread around the transfers among it's partner banks to keep them all happy versus favoring one....plus I expect TW does not really like tagging as it creates more work for them and makes it harder for them to spread the transfers among all three partner banks.

YOU ARE WRONG WITH THESE STATEMENTS!

 

Have you contacted TW directly yourself???

 

Why do you not read what the OP, myself and several others have posted at various times on this forum after contacting TW directly to ask about transfers:  

 

 

 

 

 

1

Quote

 

I sent an email to TransferWise (TW) asking if all their monthly transfers to me could be sent to Bangkok Bank, explaining the TI rules on monthly income method. Here's their reply:

 

"Thank you for getting in touch with us. I'm sorry it took us some time to answer your email.

Unfortunately, we currently have no means to allow your future transfers be automatically sent via a particular bank. This has to be done manually. Here are the steps you need to follow if you want to route your payment to Bangkok Bank:

Set up the transfer
Give us a call
Send your funds to us

Once we receive your request, we will try to manually route the payment to your chosen bank. 

I hope this helps, but if you have any questions or something needs to be clarified, please write back to us. 

 

I, and many others, have been doing this since January (since the new income method regulations came out in December). Personally, I've requested all my transfers be routed via the Bangkok Bank (ten transfers to date) and that's exactly how every transfer has arrived, with every single one shown as an INTERNATIONAL TRANSFER (FTT) in my account/passbook.

 

In addition to the information the OP has given, TW (UK) also told me that, in the future, they hope to have a tick box 'request partner bank' option on the transfer request form and that would mean the phone call for each transfer will no longer be necessary.

 

For us in the UK at least, there is no delay in the transfer (created by the phone call) with the money still arriving in Thailand the following day.

 

I am aware that the complex banking/money laundering prevention system, etc, in place in transferring money overseas from the US makes using TW less straight forward but, as I understand it, it can be used. I believe that the TW office in the US requested in January that contact during/for a transfer be made via email rather than a phone call. Not sure if that's still the case. While emails may slow the system down slightly it doesn't stop the success of the transfer going via your requested partner bank and classified as an INTERNATIONAL TRANSFER.

 

[scubascuba3]

I, and many others, have been doing this since January (since the new income method regulations came out in December). Personally, I've requested all my transfers be routed via the Bangkok Bank (ten transfers to date) and that's exactly how every transfer has arrived, with every single one shown as an INTERNATIONAL TRANSFER (FTT) in my account/passbook.
 
In addition to the information the OP has given, TW (UK) also told me that, in the future, they hope to have a tick box 'request partner bank' option on the transfer request form and that would mean the phone call for each transfer will no longer be necessary.
 
For us in the UK at least, there is no delay in the transfer (created by the phone call) with the money still arriving in Thailand the following day.
 
I am aware that the complex banking/money laundering prevention system, etc, in place in transferring money overseas from the US makes using TW less straight forward but, as I understand it, it can be used. I believe that the TW office in the US requested in January that contact during/for a transfer be made via email rather than a phone call. Not sure if that's still the case. While emails may slow the system down slightly it doesn't stop the success of the transfer going via your requested partner bank and classified as an INTERNATIONAL TRANSFER.
 

Old news. Transferwise have obviously changed their mind as the process is too manual, I don't blame them

[sumrit]

3 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

Old news. Transferwise have obviously changed their mind as the process is too manual, I don't blame them

Not old news. The OP started this thread today because he'd just contacted TW and received the same reply others have had IN THE PAST FEW MONTHS. He posted to ask if anybody else, who had contacted TW, had received the same or a different response from them.

 

TW are obviously still giving the same advice to esure transfers are sent to the correct partner bank so they have DEFINITELY NOT CHANGED THEIR MINDS. And, compared to the hoops some US citizens have to jump through in order to make a simple foreign transfer, in the UK a simple online bank transfer to TW (30 seconds) plus a 30 second phone call to them to request the correct partner bank is is not too manual, it's easier than a walk in the park.????

[NoshowJones]

"I'm sorry it took us some time to answer your email."

You are lucky you got them answered, the first time it took five days.

The second time I had to send them reminders four times before they 

finally answered. 

They took a full week to send my funds from my UK bank to my Bangkok bank.

[sumrit]

2 minutes ago, possum1931 said:

"I'm sorry it took us some time to answer your email."

You are lucky you got them answered, the first time it took five days.

The second time I had to send them reminders four times before they 

finally answered. 

They took a full week to send my funds from my UK bank to my Bangkok bank.

Phone their UK office instead of emailing them. Takes less than a minute.

[Rhys]

Can Transferwise be used to facilitate say Monthly Social Security Checks from the USA to Bangkok Bank?

 

[wgdanson]

2 hours ago, possum1931 said:

"I'm sorry it took us some time to answer your email."

You are lucky you got them answered, the first time it took five days.

The second time I had to send them reminders four times before they 

finally answered. 

They took a full week to send my funds from my UK bank to my Bangkok bank.

Not having much luck eh Possum?

[NoshowJones]

19 minutes ago, wgdanson said:

Not having much luck eh Possum?

I've used up all my luck with my good looks.

[Pib]

1 hour ago, Rhys said:

Can Transferwise be used to facilitate say Monthly Social Security Checks from the USA to Bangkok Bank?

 

Sure. Two different options:

 

1.  Simply have your SS pension paid into a US bank you may already have and then use Transferwise to send funds from that account.  You fund the Transferwise transfer by allowing Transferwise to do a ACH Bank Debit (I.e., ACH Pull...not to be confused with a debit card) from your U.S. bank account.   Or you can Wire the funds from your US bank account to Transferwise to fund the transfer but Wire transfers are pricey, better to just allow a low cost ACH Bank Debit.   

 

2.   Activate the Borderless Account option in your Transferwise account which would allow your SS benefit to be paid into that Borderless Account.   A Borderless Account basically gives you a U.S. bank account along with bank accounts in several other countries.   Your SS pension would be paid into your Borderless account number and then you would just use Transferwise to transfer funds from your Borderless account to Bangkok Bank.

 

[Rhys]

3 hours ago, Pib said:

Sure. Two different options:

 

1.  Simply have your SS pension paid into a US bank you may already have and then use Transferwise to send funds from that account.  You fund the Transferwise transfer by allowing Transferwise to do a ACH Bank Debit (I.e., ACH Pull...not to be confused with a debit card) from your U.S. bank account.   Or you can Wire the funds from your US bank account to Transferwise to fund the transfer but Wire transfers are pricey, better to just allow a low cost ACH Bank Debit.   

 

2.   Activate the Borderless Account option in your Transferwise account which would allow your SS benefit to be paid into that Borderless Account.   A Borderless Account basically gives you a U.S. bank account along with bank accounts in several other countries.   Your SS pension would be paid into your Borderless account number and then you would just use Transferwise to transfer funds from your Borderless account to Bangkok Bank.

 

Thanks for the information... With option 2, then process with SS to allow them to pay into the Borderless Account.

[JAS21]

TransferWise have set up my transfers from the UK to go direct to Bangkock Bank every time ... thus it shows FTT in my bank Book ... This Jean person is not quite right in what she says ...see my e-mail reply below from TW a couple of months ago

 

Hello William .... no one calls me that by the way ...so don't even think about it Crossy!

Hope you are doing well!

First of all, your transfer #68698236 will go through Bangkok Bank.

For future reference, there is no need to double check with us on this recipient anymore as we have done the necessary to make this particular recipient payments routed to Bangkok Bank. But in case you want to update this recipient in the future or stop routing the payments via Bangkok Bank, you’ll have to let us know.

Also, you still have to get in touch with us in regards to any other recipient except of the discussed one, if you want to route those new recipient payments via Bangkok Bank too.

Hopefully this clears the matter.
Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have further questions or concerns!

Best regards,

Ruta
TransferWis

Edited May 15, 2019 by JAS21

[sumrit]

8 minutes ago, JAS21 said:

TransferWise have set up my transfers from the UK to go direct to Bangkock Bank every time ... thus it shows FTT in my bank Book ... This Jean person is not quite right in what she says ...unless I misunderstand the topic.

'Jeane' was describing what needs to be done to ensure your transfer is routed via the correct partner bank.

 

I agree, from the UK at least, transfers currently appear to go via the Bangkok Bank anyway. When I phoned them up in January to request transfers are routed via the BB I was told the request would be flagged up on my account so I wouldn't need to phone them every time, but that was relayed over the phone and I never had it in writing. Every transfer since then has gone via the BB though. 

 

My next year's renewal will be a marriage extension, which is more flexible because the total transfers only have to average the 40k baht over the year, the odd month can be under. So I decided to make two transfers per month without phoning them each time just to see if, over the year, all transfers go via the BB. They have done so far but, if one should get routed differently, the excess that I transfer each month will more than cover the odd one showing a domestic transfer.

 

It's all working smoothly so far, time will tell.